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The latest action flick from French screenwriter Luc Besson begins with a close-up of Guy Pearce sitting in an interrogation room, where he responds to every question with a Carson-worthy joke, gets slugged in the face each time, but just can’t stop. The scene is a pretty good forecast of the movie that follows: it’s clichéd, ridiculous, and very entertaining. In the year 2079 the U.S. has built an orbiting penal colony in space where incorrigibles are placed in suspended animation (practical logic is not the movie’s strong suit). After the prisoners get loose, a human rights advocate (Maggie Grace) who happens to be the daughter of the U.S. president gets taken hostage, and the authorities offer to drop the charges against the Pearce character if he’ll go rescue her.
ByJ.R. Jones